If Only by One, It Ends
by Arldetta
Summary: Confrontation with Vader, Please Read and Review! PLEASE! - One post vignette


Title: If Only by One, It Ends  
  
Author: Arldetta  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own SW in any way. I have only borrowed the chars. I make no money. You know the whole bit. Also, I have Lyrics at the end. I don't own the song. I believe Michael Jackson does, but in name only. The Song was done by the Beatles. I thought it fit. Tell me what you think.  
  
Author's Note: This is an Epilogue to my fic "Not as it Seems." It is not wholly necessary for you to read it, but it might make a bit more sense to know the back ground. Also, there is mention of someone from another one of my fics that is still a WIP, "Iedos Liberare." It's not really necessary to read that either, but could be nice.  
  
Now for the usual:  
  
's = Thoughts //'s = flashback **'s = emphasis  
  
Happy reading, and please review. Thanks. :-)  
  
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Flattening himself against the wall, he paused to search his surroundings. The Force coursed through him and around him, allowing him to scan without seeing. Inwardly, he searched for the one person that he had come to find. The only person he cared for like a son; the one person who had betrayed everything that he stood for. Sorrow gripped his heart as painful memories flooded his thoughts. He fought back the mental onslaught in attempts to keep his focus. Still he wondered what had gone so undeniably wrong. How could he destroy what he had once so adamantly fought to protect?  
  
"You must keep going, or there won't be anyone left to fight." A desperate voice pulled him from his reverie. "Please, Obi-Wan. I know this is difficult, but we have no other option." His companion had caught up to him as they fought their way through the base. Obi-Wan nodded. He knew why they had come, but he never lost hope that he could still save his Padawan. He turned away from the female Jedi to press on toward the signature that he knew so well. Continuing through the corridors, he held his lightsaber aloft.  
  
Suddenly, a small group of storm troopers burst around a corner. Blaster fire erupted which the Jedi Knight easily deflected back at the novice soldiers. Purposefully, he pushed himself further along, knowing his comrade would cover him. Finding his way through corridor after corridor, room after room, until he entered an undersized hanger. As he entered he stood face to face with remnants of the boy he had grown to love. No longer the strapping young man but a black vessel of evil. Now more machine than man as a result of their last confrontation.  
  
"So, Master, have you come to finish what you started?" A raspy voice called to him. He could barely recognize the familiar tones of his former Padawan through the vocal enhancer, but the hate behind the words was evident.  
  
"There's still time. Stop this madness. Come back to us." He urged and then managed to choke out, "Come back to me." All the heartache caused by the betrayal threatened to drown him.  
  
"Why should I come back to you? So you can push me back down? And deny me everything I hold dear?" Vehemence laced his tone.  
  
"That's not what I intended. Let me show you." Obi-Wan decided to speak from his heart, hoping that would bring the wayward Jedi around.  
  
"No! I have spent too much time with you to know I could never please you. Or those ignorant beings that made up the Council." The two had been circling each other as they spoke. Both had their lightsabers lit and poised. Finally, the fallen Jedi made his move toward the Knight.  
  
Obi-Wan countered the move then twisted to attack from a different angle. The sabers impacted and locked together. Their faces mere inches from each other. "I can still sense the good in you. Come back to the Jedi."  
  
Breaking the stoppage of swordplay, the two twisted away from each other. Coming back to block, deflect, parry and thrust repeatedly at the other's form. Searching for a weakness to exploit. Sparks sprang from the violence and power behind each swing. A hissing clash brought the two sabers together and once again locked. "Even if there were still good in me, could you forgive me? Or the Council?"  
  
"Forgiveness is always possible for those who want it, Anakin." The dark lord pushed off at the use of his former name.  
  
"That name holds no meaning for me. I am Darth Vader now. Remember it, for it holds your death." Anger surged in the Force and Obi-Wan was thrust backwards. "As it has already killed many of your friends." Obi-Wan regained his footing and readied himself for another attack but paused as the Sith continued. "Bant, Garen, Siri, like all the others, fell by my blade. Repayment for the torment they so willing dealt out. What was it like to find your friends slaughtered?"  
  
Memories rushed in and he was running through the Temple halls toward the Medical Ward. He had just returned from a mission to find part of the Temple destroyed.  
  
//"What's happened? What's going on?" He shouted at a panicked initiate. Fear gripped his heart as he already suspected what happened.  
  
"The Healers Ward - Attacked - Sith - Pain!" Was all the startled student could gasp out. Releasing his hold on the young boy, he darted through the pristine halls. As he got closer to the healers ward he could see the pocket holes of blaster fire on the sheen walls. Fallen Jedi lined the halls, cut down by a familiar weapon. Rubble and debris was strewn about the wing as he came upon the entry to the place he found himself so often. They were never pleasant visits and this one would prove to be the worst of them all. He entered the infirmary. An Apprentice lay across the reception desk with unseeing eyes staring blankly. Bodies of wounded and healers could be found in every room; all dead. Bacta covered the floors as the tanks had been ruptured by stray blaster fire. He tried to reign in his fears. No mercy had been given to those within these walls, and he prayed that the person he was searching for would not be among them. It was selfish he knew, but he didn't know if he could handle the pain that it would cause. But as he made his way through one of the back rooms he would learn.  
  
Sprawled on the floor Obi-Wan found the Mon Calamari Healer that he had known almost his entire life. His friend, his confidant, his Bant. He stretched out with his feelings first to find her Force signature. Hope coursed through him as he found it, faint but flickering. He fell to his friend's side and gently positioned her head in his lap. "Bant" he whispered, believing anything louder would brake her.  
  
"Obi?" She breathed. At the weak vocalization of his name, he could no longer contain the tears that rimmed his eyes.  
  
"I'm here." He stated. Sorrow fully encompassing him, he pleaded with her, "Please, don't leave me." He closed his eyes willing everything he had to flow into her failing body.  
  
A tentative flipper touched his cheek. "It's too late." He opened his eyes to gaze into the bulbous silver orbs of his dying friend. "Live. Your Destiny." She gasped trying to hang on. And then the Force flowed around them and he could feel her drift into the light. No more pain. No more sorrow. No more life. He pulled her close and wept. He held in his arms his first true love. No, it was not a love of attraction but of kinship. It was the love of a soulmate that she had so often given him. The support and care given by one who meant more than life itself. He did not understand it in his youth, and vaguely grasped its meaning as he held her close. Now he would never hear her kind words or feel her gentle touch again. She was lost to him forever.//  
  
The first to fall, in a line of people he would do anything to protect. And he had failed them all. Garen and Siri fought and died in one of the first resistance movements against the Empire. Again memory forced it's way in.  
  
//The battle had been long and hard. The three fought in a circle protecting each other's back. Storm Troopers fired continuously at them. Their limbs were beginning to slow down as fatigue set it. They all had sustained wounds during the conflict but pressed their bodies further in hopes of a victory. Siri had been shot in the arm and was fighting one- handed. Garen had a nasty cut on his brow and his clothes were singed in various places. Obi-Wan had received a glancing blow from a blaster bolt along his ribs. Another had caught him in the thigh. Pain caused his vision to fade in and out. Determined not to abandon his friends, he fought on. Finally the barrage of fire abated, and the group relaxed a little at the reprieve. That's when he felt him. Vader appeared through the enemy ranks and strode toward them. Obi-Wan approached him in the hopes that he could persuade him to end this suffering. They stopped within arms reach and Obi-Wan opened his mouth to speak. Instead a startled cry escaped his lips. Vader had ignited his saber and drove it through the Knight's shoulder. The Sith Lord withdrew the blade to strike again. A second blade blocked the Dark Jedi's attack and Obi-Wan found Garen standing protectively over him. Another Jedi Knight came from no where and pulled him back. Through the dizziness and pain, he could hear his friends' shouting. "Get him out of here! We'll hold him off! He must survive!" Little did he know it would be the last time he would hear their voices. Later, when he had recovered, he was told that they had both died by the Sith's blade. He lived in grief for some time before finding the courage to re-emerge.//  
  
Some of the Council members perished in that battle as well. Reeft and so many others died during an encounter only a few months ago. Now, only a few Jedi remained, and of those only one had followed him here to try to end this struggle. Mentally returning to the present confrontation, he fought back the anguish his memories brought.  
  
"They have all tried to help you, it's you who could not accept their love and kindness." Obi-Wan tried to suppress the anger in his heart. Vader, knowing his former mentor was distracted, advanced.  
  
"The Council never loved, they only saw fit to punish those who served them blindly." Flesh sizzled as the red blade hit its mark. Obi-Wan cried out at the agony. "How do you feel now? Are you enjoying the pain? Is this what you have hoped for? Distress? Pain? Agony? They have been a part of you for as long as I have known you." Obi-Wan clutched at his side, wincing at the fires that erupted. The dark apprentice continued his taunts, "You often accepted what the Council so willing forced on you. How many times have you placed yourself on their altar? Allowed yourself to be their sacrificial nerf? How many of the scars you bare were the results of their *love and kindness, Master*?" Vader parried a hasty slash and Obi- Wan collided with his sturdy elbow.  
  
Staggering back, Obi-Wan dropped to his knees. Tears from pent up aggression and grief ran down his face. He peered at the vision of evil before him and Obi-Wan realized that at that moment he had lost what he had come to save. The last hint of light in the man whom he thought of as a son and friend was extinguished. Accepting defeat and allowing himself to be engulfed in the overwhelming guilt and sorrow, Obi-Wan waited for the final blow.  
  
"I have grown tired of your self-sacrificial ways. With you gone the Jedi will fall." Vader prepared to finish his Master and hefted his saber to make the downward slash.  
  
"No!!" A strained cry came from behind. A violet blade stopped the decapitating motion. Obi-Wan witnessed the Jedi that had urged him on, had come to his defense. His ex-Padawan and his last friend battled. Spinning, thrusting, parrying, leaping, the two entangled in the throws of battle. Unable to pull himself from the depths of desolation he had willingly receded into, he could only watch the conflict. Time slowed as Obi-Wan followed the frantic movements. Finally, the struggle ended as the red saber sheathed itself in the woman's abdomen then withdrew. It was complete. He had failed her too. Her limp form slumped to the floor as Vader turned to approach him. Again they were interrupted as troops poured in.  
  
"Sir, they've breached our perimeter, we have to leave now!" As if to stress the point, blaster fire flew by the young officer.  
  
Annoyed, Vader called to the Jedi, "We will meet again. And it will be the last time." Turning, he followed the soldier to the prepped ship. Obi-Wan managed to drag himself to the dying Jedi. He could feel the life force fading as he came up beside her. Gently, he brought her head into his lap. Again memory battered his distraught countenance. Not again. Please, Force, not again.  
  
"Live, Obi-Wan. You must resurrect the Jedi. Keep us in your heart. I love you." Her breath hitched as her systems began to shut down. He touched his forehead to hers. Her weary hand came up to wipe away the tears. His sea change eyes full of pain met her bright emerald eyes. He could see the love and acceptance of her fate in the deep green iris' and they ripped into his heart. Words formed in his ears as he heard her voice, softer than a whisper and as gentle as a breeze. "Let my last moment be this one." Her voice trailed off as the light in her vibrant jade eyes dimmed and then faded out completely. Obi-Wan clutched the form. Pulling her closer to him and ignoring the fires it sparked in his side, he rocked the body of the woman he had grown to love yet never told. A piercing cry torn from a wounded soul reverberated through the halls and through the Force. The feeling of desolation was a pale shadow compared to what the Knight was experiencing. He remained in his misery until someone squatted next to him.  
  
Bail Organa had been told of the devastation surrounding his friend. However, he was not prepared to witness the despondency that had engulfed the Jedi. Years before, he noticed a change in his friend after the Temple's destruction and the death of his fellow Jedi, Bant. He also watched the Knight slip further into himself as his comrades were hunted down and killed one by one. The few that remained resolved to go into hiding, hoping that they would one-day rise again. Obi-Wan had chosen to make one last attempt at rescuing his lost charge. Only one other decided to go with him. And now that person lay dead in Obi-Wan's arms. As had many others.  
  
Bail could not fully express the sympathy he felt for the man, so instead he offered only vague condolences before addressing the issues at hand. "I'm sorry for your loss. She will be missed." He paused before continuing. "I suggest you go into hiding. Take the boy with you. They are our last hope. Good luck my old friend. And may the Force be with you." Bail rested his hand on Obi-Wan's shoulder and then rose. Obi-Wan watched as the former Senator left before getting up.  
  
Carefully, he lifted the fallen Jedi and carried her out to perform the Ceremony. Cerasi, Qui-Gon, Bant, and now you, have all breathed your last in my arms. I finally understand what Qui-Gon felt that day Tahl died. The desire to give in and join you in the Force. And yet, you have all told me to live. What did you know that I didn't? As the body burned in the funeral pyre, Obi-Wan finally whispered, "I will never forget you, MysAri. I will never forget any of you." As the fire rose and the ashes fell, Obi- Wan withdrew to collect the child. Drifting back into his thoughts, he accepted the hand Destiny dealt him. Knowing the soft light of hope brought out by the children glistened on the horizon still did not dissuade the fact he was alone. So utterly alone. His friends were gone, and he would never again feel the warmth and love they offered so freely. Obi-Wan Kenobi bowed down to the will of the Force and headed into the years of loneliness that beckoned him.  
  
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Now I found some sheet music in a box of my stuff shortly after writing this, and I really felt it fit. Anyway, Here it is:  
  
'In My Life' (Lennon/McCartney) *I believe*  
  
There are places I remember  
  
All my life though some have changed  
  
Some forever not for better  
  
Some have gone and some remain  
  
All these places had their moments  
  
with lovers and friends I still can recall  
  
Some are dead and some are living  
  
In my life I loved them all  
  
But of all these friends and lovers  
  
There is no one compares with you  
  
And these memories lose their meaning  
  
When I think of love as something new  
  
Tho' I know I'll never lose affection  
  
For people and things that went before  
  
I know I'll often stop and think about them  
  
In my life I loved you more  
  
Tho' I know I'll never lose affection  
  
For people and things that went before  
  
I know I'll often stop and think about them  
  
In my life I loved you more  
  
In my life I loved you more  
  
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It's up to interpretation on who the 'you' is. In one of my non-posted fics, I had a discussion between the two aforementioned chars saying that there might be something between them but it could not be. Personally, I *don't* want to set him up. I think deep down he knows what it did to Qui- Gon when Tahl died and he had a big taste of it when Cerasi died. As much as he sacrifices himself to physical pain, I think that's the last kind of pain he wants to endure. As such, I made it a mutual agreement between them not to act upon such feelings. I don't know if I'm explaining it right, but it's just how I feel. He might have had relationships, I mean it would be hard not to, but I think he knew his life would only bring suffering to those he cared about. And it is his nature to do what ever he can to protect them, even if it brings the suffering on himself.  
  
If I am dead wrong about any of this let me know. Thanks again to all those who have read and commented on my writing. I really appreciate it. Thanks. :-) 


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